second generation Indian whining about racism. IDK feels very pajeet like to whine like this. fwiw other POC in comments saying they don't experience what he's complaining about.
"I am an Indian-American man in his early 20s. My parents are from India but I was born and raised in the United States. I retain plenty from my culture but I’m also about as American as it gets (I’m talking steak and eggs for breakfast and a perfect American accent). I moved here from Los Angeles about 5 years ago (yes I know, bring on the California hate in the comments lol) to pursue an engineering degree at CU. I’ve got another two years left before I’m done. I can say unequivocally that Boulder, Colorado is easily the most racist place I have ever lived in my entire life.
I’ve experienced many different flavors of racism here. One kind I see a lot are the new-age, spiritual hippie types. I had one guy straight up say “Namaste” to me (of course he was wearing harem pants and a beanie and reeked of weed), and I had another person try and call me by the Sanskrit translation of my last name, which I didn’t even know how to respond to. Sanskrit isn’t even widely spoken, it’s ancient and a studied language like Latin. You wouldn’t go up to a person from France or Spain and try and talk to them in Latin, would you?
People are also very confused when I tell them I love steak. First of all, it is a flat-out lie to say Indian people don’t eat steak. HINDUS don’t eat steak. There are plenty of Indians who are Muslims, Sikhs, etc who have no such obligation. Indian people are not a monolith, and I’m tired of people acting like we are.
Another kind of racism I see is that I am am often lumped in with the foreign exchange students who have spent their whole lives in India and have only moved here recently. Apart from being very fluent in Hindi (which I take great pride of and which you wouldn’t know talking to me because of my lack of an Indian accent), I have NOTHING in common with these people. I have more in common with a white dude from here than an Indian guy from India.
Perhaps my worst experience with racism here in Boulder is just being treated differently all the time. I went back to visit my folks in California recently and when I walked around in a mall, I noticed no one staring at me. Contrast this with Boulder, where no one gives me the time of day unless they notice me out of disgust or some sort of morbid curiosity. I'm not some ugly, grotesque looking guy. My girlfriend and a few of my friends have actually called me handsome, but that's always subjective. They've told me I smell good, and that I dress well, but again, that's just the few people I am close with. I know I look different than the guys here, and that's okay, and I actually like the way I look, I just wish I wasn't treated differently in such a palpable way.
I work in retail, and it’s my job to greet customers and to walk around the sales floor and ask if they need help finding anything. Many customers will ask another one of my coworkers for help when I’m standing right there. Many of them, especially the sorority type girls, are least polite to my coworkers but ignore me completely. When my coworkers say "have a nice day", they hear "thanks, you too!" back or something to that effect. When I do it, crickets.
Whenever I go out to the Pearl St. bars (which I understand isn’t exactly where you’re going to find the best of people), I’m treated as some sort of animal with which people take great fascination. For example, I was sitting on a bench having a smoke and some girl just starts rubbing her fingernails through my scalp WITHOUT MY CONSENT (I have noticeably thick and course hair). People there ask me about the Middle East (I look very middle eastern, almost Iranian or Afghan and that’s due to my North Indian ancestry and also because of how I wear my beard) and I just don’t know what to tell them.
I hate Boulder, Colorado. People here talk a big game about being accepting and welcoming of minorities until you have the terrible misfortune of having to share the sidewalk with me. I'd honestly much rather be called a slur to my face so I can deal with you up front. As an Indian man, I am treated like scum here. I am either faced with great disgust, or inappropriately directed curiosity. I never felt like I fit in here for some of the usual reasons such as not taking a great interest in the outdoors or in watching CU football games, but the racial issues I face here surpass those by a mile.
I'm sure there are some POC in Boulder who have different experiences, and if you like living here, I am happy for you. I just thought I'd share my message to the people of Boulder. Look within yourselves and think long and hard about how you want minorities to be treated here. If there are any POC reading this who are thinking of moving to Boulder, my advice is DON'T. All you'll find here are people who will see you as subhuman and look at you with disgust, hidden by the veneer of acceptance. I can't wait to finish my degree in two years and move out of this town and hopefully to a place where I'm treated the same as everybody else."
A lot of this seems obviously like over-sensitivity. When I was younger I worked retail and had thoughts of "customers ignoring me" which in hindsight I'm sure was just in my head. Though if ppl are pointedly ignoring the pajeet good for them, I wouldn't want to be accosted by one either.
